


the skies will break for you

by airnomadenthusiast



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, past pakku/kanna - Freeform, set before Hama goes to prison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:41:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29180457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airnomadenthusiast/pseuds/airnomadenthusiast
Summary: For Kanna, love was usually something quiet, something she could manage well enough. It had been that way when she was a little girl, falling in love with Yugoda as she left the healer’s tent, and it had been that way again when she’d stayed at Kyoshi Island briefly and met an Earthbender who’d begged her to stay. Love was a distraction, and Kanna understood that.Or she thought she did.fic title from Corinne Bailey Rae's "The Skies Will Break"
Relationships: Hama/Kanna (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: Winter ATLA Femslash Week 2021





	the skies will break for you

**Author's Note:**

> submission for winter ATLA Femslash Week 2021 prompt "hair braiding"

A cold gray sky, a wide expanse of water, and finally: land. 

She was here. 

She started rowing faster, only for her boat to be encased in ice. A girl around her age slid down a glacier like it was nothing, creating an ice bridge to Kanna’s boat and landing there. She was gorgeous: light brown skin, long black hair, startling black eyes. She looked at Kanna as if she could see right through her, and Kanna gulped. 

“What’s your name?” the girl huffed. 

“Kanna of the Northern Water Tribe,” Kanna said slowly, not daring to look away from her. 

The girl narrowed her eyes. “We don’t get many visitors from our sister tribe.” 

“I’m not visiting.” She sat up straighter, trying to make herself look as intimidating as possible. “I’m here to stay.” 

The other girl didn’t speak for a while. She seemed to be measuring Kanna, who she was and the probability of her lying. Finally, she said: “Come. You’ll have to sit before the elders before you make any decision about your future.” 

Kanna nodded. As she expected. “Very well.” 

The ice disappeared from Kanna’s boat, but the other girl remained, turning away from Kanna and guiding her through the water to the Southern Water Tribe. Kanna had heard stories of Southern villages, bustling with bonfires and storytellers and song, laughter around every corner. Her father had said that the Southerners had lost their way, that they were burying their connection with the Spirits for a good time, but to Kanna, they just sounded fun. 

This village didn’t look fun. As soon as she stepped onto land, people shielded their children from her, averted their eyes. She heard whispers, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. 

“It’s not you,” the girl said, touching her shoulder lightly. “The Fire Nation has been raiding our village so much these last few months, taking our Waterbenders.” 

Kanna’s eyes widened. “Tui and La, are you serious?” 

The girl nodded. “I’m the last one.” The sentence seemed to weigh heavily on her, setting tiny wrinkles on her forehead where there hadn’t been any before. “And the North hasn’t helped, so naturally, people are suspicious.” 

“I’m not going back,” Kanna said, pursing her lips into a thin line. “I can be whatever you want me to be, I’ll do whatever you want me to do, but I’m not going back. I’m not like them.”

For just a moment, something almost like a smile passed over the girl’s face. “My name’s Hama,” she said. “You’ll want to remember that, because I’m your best chance of pleasing the elders.” 

Kanna nodded. “Thank you.” She looked down at Hama’s hands. “You know, they don’t let women do things like that in the North.” 

“Things like what?” 

“Guarding the village. Or really, using Waterbending for anything but healing.” She remembered the glint in her fiance’s eyes whenever he talked about it, how his summation of it never held up women’s abilities, only men’s. 

“So what, you think it’s improper for me to guard my village?” Hama huffed. 

“No, that’s—” 

“There’s no one else, Kanna.  _ No one.  _ So I have to be the defender, and the healer, all the while knowing that it’s only a matter of time—” 

“I know,  _ I know.”  _ Kanna gulped. “I saw their ships on my journey here. I—there were so many times when they almost—” She couldn’t even finish her sentence. “I was in danger. They would have killed me if they had the chance.” 

Hama frowned. “So why didn’t you turn back?”

Her eyes bore into Kanna’s, and Kanna swallowed. “I had already come that far. There was no point.” 

“All right then,” Hama said. “Let’s make sure you never go back.”

____________

“She’s escaping a forced marriage,” Hama said when they met with the elders later that night. “She sailed across the world to be here.” 

Kanna let Hama talk. She had no authority here. 

One of the women smiled. “Then I suppose we have no choice, do we?” 

That was the first time Kanna ever saw Hama smile. And right then and there, she fell in love.

____________

For Kanna, love was usually something quiet, something she could manage well enough. It had been that way when she was a little girl, falling in love with Yugoda as she left the healer’s tent, and it had been that way again when she’d stayed at Kyoshi Island briefly and met an Earthbender who’d begged her to stay. Love was a distraction, and Kanna understood that. 

Or she thought she did. What she felt for Hama was all-encompassing, world-ending, enough to break the sky over her head. Maybe it was the stress of acclimating to her new home, the fact that people in the village still didn’t trust her. Or maybe it was just Hama, walking the world as if she was free. 

Kanna didn’t even see Hama all that often. As the village’s sole Waterbender, she was always running around, healing children’s scrapes and standing guard and training, always training. Kanna had never seen someone so dedicated to Waterbending, not even her former fiancé, and she respected it. Hama didn’t constantly improve herself because she wanted to be the best. She did it because she wanted to be ready, for the day when her people were going to need her, and she was going to have to fight for her life and theirs. 

Whenever they did see each other, there was always someone staring coldly at Kanna, watching her every move. Hama was beloved, and Kanna knew that she was walking on thin ice, befriending one of the most important people in the village. Loving her. The old Kanna would take note of this and keep her distance, find a nice man who could provide for her, who maybe would never make her feel as alive as Hama did, but who wouldn’t be dangerous either. 

But now, she was too focused on finding all the ways she could make Hama laugh. She was too focused on watching the tension in Hama’s shoulders dissipate whenever she was near. That was what mattered to her, not safety. Safety wasn’t worth losing her smile. 

One morning, Kanna woke, washed and combed her hair, and took a deep breath before she started to braid it. At that moment, Hama walked in. 

“Hi.” 

Kanna smiled. “Hello. Sit, I was just about to braid my hair.” 

She could feel the intensity of Hama’s gaze on her. “Can I?” 

Kanna had never let anyone but her mother braid her hair. Her fiancé had asked once, but she said no. She didn’t trust him to do it as carefully as it needed to be done, to be as positive and as reverent as he needed to be. He wasn’t that kind of man. 

“Yes,” Kanna said. “I trust you.” 

Hama smiled softly, before turning her attention to Kanna’s hair. Kanna held back a sigh as Hama took some of it in her hands, holding it and pulling it firmly against Kanna’s head. They didn’t speak, but Hama hummed softly, and the melody of it made Kanna feel relaxed. 

_ I love you, I love you, I love you.  _

Something about Hama’s fingers in her hair said  _ I love you too.  _

“Thank you,” Kanna said when she finished. 

Hama smiled, and it was shy and secretive. A new smile for her. “I came here to say something.” 

“So say it.” 

Hama took one of Kanna’s hands in hers. “The day you came here was the best day of my life.” 

“Mine too.” 

Hama swallowed. “I never want to love anybody but you.” 

Kanna nodded. “Neither do I.” 

Hama held Kanna’s face in her hands, as reverently as she had held her hair moments ago, and softly, surely, touched Kanna’s lips to hers. Kanna held onto her, moving her mouth more surely, and Hama broke it, smiling and resting her forehead against Kanna’s. 

“That was wonderful.”  
“It would have been better if you had let me keep going,” Kanna huffed. 

Hama grinned. “So I’ll let you keep going then,” she said, closing the distance once more. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! if you enjoyed that, I'd really encourage you to check out [ Critical Resistance ](http://criticalresistance.org/donate/ways-to-give/) an organization working to end the prison-industrial complex. if you want to see more of me, then you can head on over to tumblr and follow me @harutheestallion.


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